Scumbag Steve
About Scumbag Steve is an image macro series featuring a kid with a sideways fitted cap standing in a hallway. The overlaid text generally centers around unethical behavior regarding drugs, partying, and other hedonistic behaviors. Origin The original image came from the cover of the album “Ma Gangsta”[1] by the rap group Beantown Mafia.[2] The first known image macros were posted in a compilation to Reddit[3] in a thread that reached the front page on January 21st, 2011 and received 8,607 up votes prior to being archived. A commenter in the Reddit thread identified the young man in the photo as Blake Boston, also known as “Weezy B.” In an interview with Know Your Meme, Blake revealed that the picture was originally taken by his mother. http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/93953-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/94528-scumbag-steve Spread The scumbagsteve.com[13] domain was registed on January 27th, 2011. A compilation of Scumbag Steve images were posted to BuzzFeed[14] on February 2nd, 2011. The Daily Mail[15] posted an article about Blake Boston’s reaction to becoming Internet famous on February 11th. A Facebook[16] fan page has 13,953 likes, a Quickmeme[20] page has 73,815 submissions and a Meme Generator[21] page has 153,149 submissions as of April 6th, 2012. Other derivatives can be found on Tumblr[17], Memebase[18] and Funny Junk.[19] Notable Examples http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/94544 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97356 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/93965 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97933 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97932 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97928 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97338 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/96956 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/94535 The meme was particularly well received by Reddit’s /r/trees sbureddit, leading to creation of many image macros with references to smoking etiquettes and commonly shared experiences under the influence of cannabis. Blake later confirmed his appreciation of the marijuana enthusiast subreddit, /trees. http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97343-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/96255-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/96677-scumbag-steve Derivatives A number of notable spin-off instances surfaced on Reddit, many of them influenced by the Dogfort saga as well as current news, such as the oh-so-funny “Mubarak Steve” satirizing the Egyptian president’s ill-advised decision to shut off the nation’s internet access for days in late January 2011. http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97347 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97938 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/97941 Scumbag Hat Hundreds of image macros have since emerged featuring Scumbag Steve’s trademark hat photoshopped onto other people and objects accompanied by Scumbag Steve style captions. The hat is a New Era Red Sox ‘A-TOOTH’ brown fitted hat. A similar style with slightly different colors can be found at the Hatland website.[6] http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/160673-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/159352-scumbag-steve Scumbag Brain The first Scumbag Brain derivative was posted to Reddit on March 24th, 2011. It featured an image of a human brain with text describing frustrating lapses in judgement or memory. On July 17th, 2011, a Quickmeme[7] page was created for “Scumbag Brain”. There are currently over 400 submissions to the Quickmeme page as of August 11th, 2011. http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/211151-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/211168 http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/211152 Identity & Presence Blake created the Twitter account @blakeboston617[4] on Jan 31st, 2011 and created the Tumblr “The Real Scumbag Steve” on February 7th, 2011. On March 6th, 2011, Blake Boston appeared in a video interview with Boston-based indie comedy improv company RoughDraft.TV[5], sharing his thoughts on the character of Scumbag Steve, how his MySpace picture from High School made its way to memedom as well as his first impression of Reddit and other online hubsites. “I have no regrets in my life …no matter what I do. I can completely fuck up on something and I still don’t regret it. Because at the end of the day, that makes me who I am, so I wouldn’t go back and erase anything, if I were to go back in time.”Photos of Blake in real life posing with various fans have appeared on both Reddit[9][10] and FunnyJunk.[8][10] http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/192050-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/192100-scumbag-steve http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/192051-scumbag-steve Open Letter http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/220590-scumbag-steve On December 21st, 2011, Slacktory[22] editor Nick Douglas published an open letter from Blake Boston to the Annoying Facebook Girl in which he gives advice about how to deal with unintended Internet fame. Dear Annoying Facebook Girl, it’s me Blake. You may know me as Scumbag Steve. Or not, if you’re not on the internet much. I heard you just found out that your pics been all over the internet. Shocking huh? Google yourself, but have a friend with you for support. Feeling violated? Don’t. You see, like me, your picture was used as a meme. What the fuck, you may ask, is a meme? Well basically it’s you and others in image macro form, that represent a thought, behavior, style or idea that spreads from person to person within a culture. Rap Career On January 20th, 2012, Blake was interviewed by the hip hop music blog Tech N9ne[23] and revealed that while he still wants to make music, he was placing his rap career on hold due to “personal issues.” However, on May 3rd, 2012, Boston released his first video “Scumbag Steve Overture” via YouTube. He also announced a series called Scumbag Thursdays[24], releasing a song and video weekly. In the first day, the video garnered more than 1.2 million views and 20,000 likes. The video was immediately shared on Reddit[25], where it received 41,765 up votes and 2250 points overall. The video was also featured on Mashable[27], Slate[28] and Geekosystem.[29] The next day, Boston did a video interview with the Daily Dot[26] about his rap persona and the future of his videos. Category:3rd person advice animals